Hi, I'm Matt. I'm a freelance Cameraman based near Brighton in the sometimes sunny South East of England and this is my blog.
It's going through a minor re-vamp at the mo, so bear with me..
This blog consists of work related posts, non-work related posts and posts that have very little relevance to anything...ever. Enjoy.

First week @ Brook Lapping done and dusted and it's going ok, having to get back in the habit of cold calling people again, but I think all's going well at the mo at least. Should have some of the review samples coming in next week so I can get them checked out and sent out to the relevant teachers etc.

Two downsides to the job, 1)longer commute, 4hrs a day now :/ 2)A god awful HP PC, which allegedly is a 2.8GHZ P4, although you wouldn't guess it as it would probably run quicker if it was switched off! Possibly something to do with the 248Mb RAM it has (according to control panel at least), how the hell do you get 248?! It's a P4 surely the sticks are at least 256!?

Anyway because of the work/commute n stuff I've been stupidly busy and tired, which meand completing production on ITGA has slipped slightly (arse!), hopefully figure out the best plan of attack on that soon as I still need to try and blag a camera to shoot the few pickups so I can actually finish the thing! :(

I've also taken to trying to do the puzzles in whatever free paper I pick up on the train, namely sudoku or a crossword, needless to say I'm crap at both, but at least I feel like I'm stimulating my brain and helping to prevent the onset of Altzheimers...um...

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...and Steve was like all...like, the iTunes Music Store, is just the iTunes Store now, cos like..we've got an ass load of movies in there..

IF YOU'RE IN FUCKING AMERICA YEAH!!!

LIKE ALL THE FUCKING TV SHOWS!!

WHY IS IT SO FUCKING DIFFICULT?!!?

America has had TV shows in iTunes for ages now, at least since half way throudh season one of Lost, and over here in Blighty we got zip!

I downloaded a couple of episodes of Lost today, to catch up on what I'd missed, now that's not right. Ive since deleted them (for space rather than morals), but had they been available in iTunes I would have bloody bought them!

Now I'm not gonna pay for episodes of Dr Who or whatever shite eventually ends up in the UK store (if the broadcasters ever sort their crappy prehistoric ways out and start to realise that there's other mediums out there now!), but stuff like Lost, Battlestar, and if it were available The Amazing Screw On Head, stuff I like, I'd happily buy, especially as they've gone to 640x480 res now, although that's a bit odd, as it's still 4:3 (cos it's all iPod orientated), most broadcast is 16:9 now, and computer monitors are going more and more 16:9.

Although oddly enough the new iMacs are apparently 16:10?!? What's all that about?!

So all these new goodies that the mothership's tempting me with and I can't have any of it. And even if I could, we're stuck in shite old England with it's broadcast industry that fears change and it's crappy broadband. "Surf at superfast speeds* *compared to outer mongolia"

In Japan they have 100Meg connections now, 100-fucking-meg!, why in god's name am I still on 2Meg?!? Oh yeah, cos I live more than 3ft away from the damn exchange.

They drive me insane with their new stuff!! They announce their special "Showtime" event (today) a few weeks back, then last week, brought out a 24" iMac (w00t!!), after completing the intel transition with the Mac Pro (w00t!!!!!), now they've released an new 80Gb iPod, and are gonna be making a proper TV/Media centre thing.

why do the tease me so, they know I can't afford any of it BOO HOO, OH BOO HOO HOO

The first one (set in the prequels) is amazing, this one is juat as good!! Bought it earlier, have just completed Episode IV ANH, so not amazingly difficult, but then a) it's lego and b)its aimed at younger kids anyway.

It wont take long to complete, but the magic is in the fact that you HAVE to go back and re-do the levels with different characters to get all of the special items.

I think they should do a full range of Lego platformers.. next up I reckon the Ewok movies..Caravan Of Courage and Battle For Endor.

It feels so weird to pay to download music, but I guess it the good and proper thing to do, rather than what some people do which is to download music from a P2P source. Scum.

I think it's this iTunes/Coke promo that got me started...I drink far too much Coke, and at the moment they've got this thing where 1 bottle of Coke = 1 iTunes song credit. Cheers, although it's limited to 5 songs per account, not so cheers. Still debating whether to set up any more accounts or not, just to get some more free music.

Plus side : more free musicDown side : having to manage more accounts that I'm only gonna use for 5 free songs eachIs it really worth it? Probably not.

But as a spin off from that, i've gone and paid for 2 whole albums from the store (previous and only purchase (apart from free downloads of the week) was the somewhat dissappointing Kubb album).. Revelations, the new Audioslave album, which rocks like a bitch although Tom Morello *still* needs to sort his damn solo's out :/

And thanks to the iTunes "Just For You" feature which suggests similar artists (sometimes with a fair randomness), I've purchased of Euphoria Morning, a Chris Cornell solo album, which is also quite good, if a little odd in places, but cheers. :)

and I know you're dying to know what I "bought" with my Coke Credits...

I couldn't quite believe the text that my girlfriend sent me this morning, telling me he was dead and that he'd been stabbed in the heart by a Sting-ray's barb, but it's true.

Now while I prefer watching some of the other reptile/animal people who cropped up on TV after Steve kicked everything off, I can't help but feel saddened by this news.

Both myself and my girlfriend thought that Austin Stevens would be the first to go, but it's not the case.

Steve Irwin, to us over here at least, I guess is kinda like a 21st Century Terry Nutkins, little bit edgier, but has done the same thing. Inspired a generation of children to learn more about animals and the world around them. His ridiculously high energy and enthusiasm for all things animal (esp. reptile), not only got him a top rating TV show, but also helped him pour much needed funds into the Australia Zoo in Queensland, raising awareness and support for all things conservation.

Or it would be if the damn T-Mobile wireless connection was any good!!! Thank Christ it was free and I wasn't paying the ridiculously extortionate charges that they have!!

So an interesting week, cut a couple of sequences for Viral Vision, which was fun, got me better aquainted with Avid Media Composer, but was frustratingly slow. Not the system, just me not knowing my way around properly, but that all comes with experience. I should spend more time with Avid Xpress at home, but the projects I've been working on recently have been in Final Cut, or I've started them in FCP cos I know it better.

Speaking of which, ITGA, is coming along, I'm still pretty confident with the October deadline, I'm kinda finishing as I go...rough cut the scene, then sync the clips and re-cut, tweak the cuts, colour correct and sound mix, tweak the cuts, scowl and swear, etc.

Sound is overall a right pig. After I solved the syncing issues, i'm now onto mixing, which is also a bastard (think I may have mentioned in a previous post), but it's getting there.

Work wise, it's been going well, I finish at SqD on the 8th :(, looks like next week is paperwork week, which isn't really exciting, but will be good to know more about that side of things, especially as it seems the next job I'm going to at Brook Lapping Education is gonna involve a shitload of paperwork!

But, at the end of the day, although I have no interest in becoming a Production Co-Ordinator/Manager, knowing how that side of things works, can only help to improve everything else you do. Having a greater understanding of all aspects of production is better then being solely focussed on one side of things...I could really go for a McDonald's Big breakfast about now :/